Established in 1988, Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area is north of St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River from Alton, Illinois. This 1200 acre refuge, which stretches along the west side of the River, adjacent to the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, is a mosaic of riparian woodlands, wet meadows, ponds, marsh and crop fields; entrances are off U.S. 67, in Missouri.
During the winter, huge flocks of Canada geese inhabit the preserve, joined by smaller groups of snow and white-fronted geese; trumpeter and tundra swans may also winter here. A variety of surface-feeding ducks, including mallards, green-winged teal, gadwall, wigeon, pintail and American black ducks will be found on the ponds and marshes while diving ducks and grebes favor the deeper waters behind the dam; the latter include canvasbacks, redheads, lesser scaup, buffleheads, common and hooded mergansers, ring-necked ducks, common goldeneyes and pied-billed grebes. Each year, a number of rare visitors, such as Barrow's goldeneyes, oldsquaws, scoters or kittiwakes turn up at Riverlands; Missouri's first smew appeared at the refuge during the winter of 2000-2001.
Bald eagles and a variety of gulls feast on stunned fish below the dam while peregrine falcons patrol the restless flocks of waterfowl. Short-eared owls are regular winter residents at the refuge, as are northern harriers, rough-legged hawks and the ubiquitous red-tailed hawks. Winter songbirds include horned larks, white-crowned sparrows, golden-crowned kinglets, American tree sparrows and rusty blackbirds. Northern bobwhites and ring-necked pheasants are often spotted on the grasslands while snow buntings, Lapland longspurs and long-eared owls are among the irregular winter visitors. Resident mammals include white-tailed deer, coyotes, fox, raccoons, beaver and muskrats.
